Al

Things are good here - except that I want to go fox hunting, but the weather is hotting up (it has been in the 90s the last two days). Not the best conditions for getting camoed up for calling! I have a bunch of predator calls on the way from the USA and I REALLY want to take the Swift out and try these calls when they arrive. Plus, I’m waiting on my new McMillan Sako Varmint stock to arrive for the Swift. I hate waiting for stuff to get here from America.

We cant get the AA2700 powder here, or any from this line. We do have Win 760, but I don’t like to use it. I find it too temperature sensitive. In the past, I have worked up a load that shot well, with good pressure signs, only to find it completely FLATENS primers the next time I use it. I did take some Win 760 to the range with me last weekend, but could not bring my self to load with it. It might have shot really well, and then I would be tempted to use it on a hunting trip. I’m sure it would all have ended in tears, so best to avoid it completely.

On the components front, we have pretty good supplies of most essentials. We are self sufficient in powder due to Australian Defence Industries (they make all the Hodgdon Extreme powders, plus a couple Hodgdon don’t bring into the US). We also have Winchester powders and Vihtavuori powder, though the Vit is about twice the price of the ADI powders, so not too many of us use the Vit. Vit sales is mainly 133 to addicted 6PPC shooters – I have 5 or 6 pounds of 133 for that reason.

Brass supplies from the majors such as Win, Rem & PMC, plus the quality stuff from Norma, Lapua & RWS. Bullets from Hornady, Speer, Nosler, Sierra, etc are all available. We have a couple of guys here making custom BR bullets (mainly 6mm, with a couple of .22s) from J4 jackets. We get CCI and Federal primers, though we did have trouble 10-12 years back. I keep about 30,000 primers on hand, just to get me through any supply shortages.

We have 4 barrel makers here, though only one of those is at consistent BR match quality. And, we have some good gunsmiths here, though the benchrest standard ones can be counted on one hand. Optics are all from the US or Japan (or China, but who buys that stuff?).

The things we really miss are the specialty items, like the single operator custom makers - bullet makers, custom reloading supplies, stock makers, etc.  We have a lot of trouble getting items out of the USA due to export requirements, in addition to import requirements into Australia. When the cost of documentation for export from the US is factored into the cost of goods, prices for custom components from America can be quite high. Add that to a weak currency (the Aussie Dollar is generally referred to as the Pacific Paso down here) and shooting good equipment is often a high dollar pastime.

Fergus